The present invention relates to a network management technique suited advantageously for employment in a network in which media sharing type infrastructures and media switch type infrastructures coexist mixedly.
Heretofore, a router apparatus and a bridge apparatus have been widely used as the means for controlling communication traffics by dividing a network into a plurality of segments. Further, a high-speed/wide-band switch apparatus of ATM type (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) has also been developed and used for practical applications. As is stated in a draft of xe2x80x9cIEEE 802.1q Standardsxe2x80x9d published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 130421/1997 (JP-A-9-130421) as well, it is known to implement virtual networks, i.e., logical network segments for every network port under the control of the switch apparatus. However, there exist a plurality of standards for such virtual network systems or schemes which differ from one to another enterprise or from one to another industrial colleague.
On the other hand, as a scheme or system for managing machines or equipment on a network, SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) prescribed in xe2x80x9cRequest for Comment 1907 (RFC 1907) published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is adopted. With this protocol, setup statuses of the individual machines or equipment can be surveyed and/or altered on an equipment-by-equipment basis.
Furthermore, as a method of managing information of the users who are making use of network and computers connected to the network by using a database, the directory services stipulated by xe2x80x9cX.500xe2x80x9d is adopted as the international standards.
The conventional systems or schemes mentioned above, however, suffer problems such as enumerated below.
1) In the conventional systems known heretofore, it is certainly possible to implement the logical network segments as the virtual networks by setting previously the network for relaying or repeating packets at the switch apparatus to thereby set up the physical interconnection status of machines or equipment and the logical interconnection status implemented by the virtual networks independent of each other. In that case, however, much difficulty is encountered in referencing or surveying the network configuration as a whole over a wide range and altering or modifying the same.
More particularly, because no consideration is paid to the structure of a database destined for consolidative management for the setup status and supervision of the whole virtual network realized by a plurality of equipment, it is extremely difficult in referencing or supervising and altering or modifying the setup status of the virtual network configuration and the network address structure over a plurality of machines or equipment.
2) Furthermore, with regard to the packaging of the virtual network, there have been proposed a plurality of different schemes. By way of example, for the asynchronous transfer mode or ATM, LAN emulation (hereinafter also referred to as the LANE) standardized by the standardization association xe2x80x9cATM Forumxe2x80x9d is packaged, i.e., adopted actually. Furthermore, concerning the Ethernet switch apparatus, there exist various packaging schemes such as xe2x80x9cVLAN Schemexe2x80x9d (IEEE802.1q) currently under discussion for the standardization by the International Standardization Association xe2x80x9cIEEExe2x80x9d in addition to those which have been expanded or extended individually by diverse vendors.
Now, let""s suppose a network environment in which a plurality of virtual networks of different package types such as mentioned above are combined coexistently. In such environment, it is certainly possible to connect mutually the virtual networks through the medium of the router apparatus. However, the method of referencing or supervising and altering the setup status of the virtual networks differs from one to another virtual network in dependence on the package types as adopted, involving necessity of performing the setup and other operations separately for each of the virtual networks. More specifically, when there arises the necessity of altering or changing the member equipment of the virtual network segments, it is required to alter the setup statuses thereof at the server apparatuses which are in charge of managing the associated virtual network segments, respectively, or the switch apparatuses or both of them.
In other words, when a plurality of virtual networks of different types are combined coexistently, an extreme difficulty will be encountered in managing the network as a whole while referencing or altering the setup statuses of the virtual networks in a consolidated manner at one location or station.
3) Besides, when configuration of the logical network segment implemented by the virtual network and that of the physical network are grasped in terms of a logical network configuration as viewed from the standpoint a higher-rank protocol, then the management of the virtual network configuration has to be performed separately from the management of the logical network layers with the internet protocol or IP. In such network system, it is impossible to grasp intuitively the physical equipment interconnections as well as relations with and among the logical network configurations. Consequently, when occurrence of obstacle or failure in the network system is detected, extreme difficulty will be involved in determining discriminatively the location where the failure or disturbance is taking place.
As will now be appreciated from the foregoing, with the conventional techniques, it is very difficult to realize a means which allows a person in charge of managing or supervising the network system to grasp intuitively the configuration or structure of the network system as a whole by establishing or grasping simultaneously correspondences among the logical network segment structures implemented as the virtual networks, the physical network configuration realized by physically wiring the equipment, and the logical network configuration as viewed from the standpoint of higher-rank protocols of variety.
In the light of the state of the art described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a network management technique which is capable of managing easily a network system which includes a plurality of virtual networks realized in accordance with different schemes.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a network management system implemented by adopting the network management technique mentioned above.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide individual apparatuses required for constituting the above-mentioned system.
Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide programs for realizing the individual apparatuses.
In view of the above and other objects which will become apparent as the description proceeds, the present invention is directed to a network management system for managing a computer network in which a media switching type infrastructure and a media sharing type infrastructure are combined coexistently.
In the network management system mentioned above, it is taught according to a general aspect of the present invention that a database for network management is provided, in which correspondences are established among information concerning physical connections of equipment on the network, information concerning logical network configuration such as that of virtual network and information concerning users who make use of the network.
With the arrangement of the network management system mentioned above, management of the network including a plurality of virtual networks realized in accordance with respective schemes can be facilitated because the setup status of the virtual networks can be referenced, surveyed or altered easily in a consolidated manner owing to the provision of the service-destined database which is capable of storing the information concerning the physical interconnections of network equipment, the information concerning the logical virtual network configuration and the user information.
In a preferred mode for realizing the network management system according to the general aspect of the present invention described above, there may be provided a display unit which is capable of displaying the information concerning the physical network, the information concerning the logical network and the user information in the form of tree-structure type directory data.
In another mode for realizing the network management system according to the general aspect of the invention, it is preferred to provide a display means which is capable of disposing the physical network information, the logical network information and the user information on different planes, respectively, for displaying the information on all the planes three-dimensionally within a single frame.
In a further mode for realizing the network management system according to the general aspect of the invention, it is preferred to provide an identification means for identifying discriminatively the entities of individual equipment on the network as well as interconnection relations thereof by using physical addresses allocated inherently to network ports, respectively.
By virtue of the arrangements described above, it is possible to search (or retrieve) and alter the information concerning the interconnection relations among the physical network equipment, the information concerning the logical virtual network configuration and the user information in a consolidated manner by using as keys the physical addresses allocated to the physical network equipment, respectively.
In conjunction with the preferred mode for carrying out the invention described just above, it is preferred to provide a search or retrieve means which is capable of searching or retrieving the information of the physical addresses inherent to the network ports, respectively, in response to queries about the logical addresses.
The above and other objects, features and attendant advantages of the present invention will more easily be understood by reading the following description of the preferred embodiments thereof taken, only by way of example, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.